How an organizer is helping supplement Seattle's homelessness count

Published January 25, 2023 at 11:40 AM CST

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A homeless man checks on a friend who had passed out after smoking fentanyl at a homeless encampment on March 12, 2022 in Seattle, Washington. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Local officials around the country are preparing to tally how many people are experiencing homelessness in their cities. These point-in-time counts are required in order to access federal funding for homeless programs.

Critics have long raised concerns that this method can lead to undercounting the actual population without stable housing. Seattle is trying a supplemental approach to the counts and using the data to help with a new effort to get people help through what’s known as The Housing Command Center.

Here & Now‘s Deepa Fernandes speaks with Marvin Futrell, director of policy and strategy for the Washington State Lived Experience Coalition and co-director of the Housing Command Center.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.